Yesterday, NPR reported that the Mars rover, Curiosity, transmitted new data that has NASA scientists throughly excited. The data is coming from an instrument in the rover called Sample Analysis at Mars, or SAM for short, which functions as a miniature chemistry lab designed to determine the composition of Martian rocks, soil, and air. SAM is also capable of identifying organic compounds, carbon containing molecules that could possibly have been created inside a living creature.

NASA has yet to reveal details about the discovery, as they are in the process of cautiously re-checking the data to rule out the possibility of incorrect data due to issues such as equipment errors.